Xykon
Xykon is an evil sorcerer lich bent on ruling the world through control of one of the five Gates imprisoning the Snarl, a scheme he developed on the prompting of Redcloak, the Bearer of the Crimson Mantle. Roy Greenhilt was sworn to destroy Xykon to fulfill his father's blood oath, and formed the Order of the Stick for this purpose. Xykon is a pseudonym taken by the sorcerer in life; his original name is not known. Xykon is the leader of Team Evil, though the other members of that group seem to have their own purposes as well. Biography Early Life and Rise to Power The boy who would eventually take the name Xykon was born human, 110 years prior to the events of the comic. He had a natural talent for necromancy, which he developed in childhood by zombifying his dog Barky and, later (by his teenage years), his grandmother. After an interview with Dr. Xavion, a wizard who tried to recruit him to his S-Men (a group of sorcerers who use their powers for good), Xykon realized that his power was due to his being a sorcerer, proceeding to kill and zombify the wizard, whom he sets upon his parents along with his grandmother. At this point he developed a love of coffee and chose the name of Xykon to replace the name his parents gave him. He served for some time under an Unholy Master, but when the Master chose not to promote Xykon at Helldeathdoomfire Volcano due to his lack of strategic and leadership skills, he chose to go it alone. His first independent evil plan did not go so well, with him being imprisoned. witnesses the death of Fyron by Xykon, also one of the few pictures of Xykon in human form]] Forty years later, Xykon fought the wizard Fyron Pucebucklehttp://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0078.html, solely for Fyron's crown, in front of his apprentice Eugene Greenhilt. After an extended duel, Fyron defeated Xykon, while showing the contempt for Xykon's Sorcery as opposed to Fyron's Wizardry that Xykon hates. However, Xykon managed to grab Fyron's own Wizzie award and beat him to death with it. Xykon zombified Fyron, took the crown and teleported away. It was later revealed that the crown had no magical properties, and Xykon merely thought it looked "badass." This led to Eugene swearing a "Blood Oath of Vengeance" against the sorcerer, an oath that, with his death, has now passed down to Eugene's children, Roy and Julia. Xykon remembers very little of this event due to the sheer number of people swearing revenge on him for killing their loved ones in front of them, though he did tell Roy more details of the event upon taking back his crown, which Roy had worn on a necklace. Team Evil is Formed Xykon encountered the Bearer of the Crimson Mantle and his rogue brother when they were planning the storming of a Sapphire Guard fortress in a swamp, when Lizardfolk attack it first. Before the Goblins could do anything about it, Xykon arrived and, killed all the humans, as well as any lizardfolk in the area. Both the Goblins and Lizardfolk beseeched Xykon for aid in their respective plans, but Xykon killed the Lizardfolk ambassador because he couldn't be bothered remembering his name. The Goblins took on the names Redcloak and Right-Eye, respectively, and told him of a plan to unlock one of the gates imprisoning the Snarl and use the monster to blackmail the gods themselves, tricking him into believing he will be able to control the Snarl. The Demon Cockroaches at the diner they go to started to follow Xykon around. In a pitched battle for Lirian's Gate, Redcloak and Xykon were defeated by Lirian's forces. Lirian personally brought down Xykon, and all non-Elven spellcasters in the area, with a magical virus that permanently robbed victims of their ability to cast magic. Redcloak was protected by the Crimson Mantle providing him with immunity to the disease. Showing compassion, Lirian had them imprisoned in a druidic prison. Redcloak proposed that Xykon, now completely impotent, should undergo the transformation into a Lich, both to gain immunity from Lirian's virus, and to allow the 80-year old to live long enough to complete the ritual. Right-Eye objected, becoming increasingly worried about Xykon's callousness with goblin lives. He was swayed over when Redcloak volunteered his Holy Symbol as Xykon's Phylactery, so they would always have that as leverage. Four months later, the transformation was complete. Capable of casting spells again, Xykon broke out and fought Lirian, while Redcloak assaulted the gate again. Xykon in his Lich form was far more formidable than before, and he easily defeated Lirian, but not before she accidentally revealed the existence of the other gates. To torture her further, he bound her soul into a gem and zombified her body. Meanwhile, Redcloak attacked the treants defending the gate with a Flame Strike spell. The fire spread rapidly, and the panicking treants accidentally destroyed the gate, something Xykon held against Redcloak for years. When Xykon realized he could no longer taste coffee, he attacked Right-Eye, and Redcloak held his phylactery hostage. Xykon correctly assumed that smashing it would have no immediate effect on him, as his soul only enters the item on the destruction of his body. The two brothers reluctantly followed Xykon once more to find the other Gates. Sometime later Xykon found the diary of Serini Toormuck and learned the location of Dorukan's Gate as well as his infatuation with Lirian. Dungeon of Dorukan Six months prior to the Order entering the dungeon, Xykon arrived at the Dungeon of Dorukan, and drew Dorukan into a duel by showing the gem to which he bound Lirian's soul. Xykon vented his frustration at a century of Wizardly snobbery towards him by slamming energy drain after energy drain into Dorukan until he died. While the fight went on, Right-Eye seized his chance to kill Xykon with a magic dagger (which allowed the wielder to sneak attack the undead). Unwilling to let thirty years of goblin sacrifice go to waste (or indeed admit that he was partly responsible for it), Redcloak prevented this by killing Right-Eye. After Xykon bound Dorukan's soul in the same gem as Lirian, he got his headband gaining the ability to cast the Cloister spell. He ordered Redcloak to zombify Right-Eye, but he refused. Xykon then revealed he knew Right-Eye would do this, and he had a magic ring to protect him from the sneak attack. Redcloak's spirits crushed at what he's become—Xykon's slave—he zombified his brother's body without further question. Xykon filled the dungeon with goblins, mercenaries and undead minions, as he waited for his chance to unlock the gate. Order of the Stick Dungeon Crawlin' Fools That chance came with the arrival of the Order of the Stick, led by Roy Greenhilt, out to fulfill his father's blood oath. Needing people of pure heart to open the gate, Xykon allowed them to gain access to his throne room and attempted to bluff them into completing his plan. Elan the bard was on the verge of doing so, when Haley Starshine, who had learned the details of Xykon's plan from one of his goblin minions, stopped him. The annoyed lich inflicted pain on the pair, only to be confronted by Roy. Angered to learn that Xykon had no particular interest in his oath, on the grounds that he'd slain more people than he could be bothered to remember, then enraged by the lich's casual destruction of his ancestral greatsword, Roy knocked off Xykon's head (a mere inconvenience to the lich), then threw both parts of his foe into the gate. The energies of the gate completely destroyed Xykon's body. With their master gone, Xykon's forces either ran or attempted to surrender (only to be killed by Belkar). Dungeon, gate and the castle above were all destroyed when Elan set off the self-destruct system that Dorukan had built into his stronghold. No Cure for the Paladin Blues Although his physical form was destroyed, Xykon's phylactery, made from the unholy symbol of his chief minion, Redcloak, remained intact, allowing him to regrow his body over the next few weeks. He assembled a new, much larger army of hobgoblins (88 legions of approximately 300 hobgoblins each) and used them to reclaim his tower from an infestation of good-aligned creatures. He added many of these to his forces in undead form, most notably a zombie silver dragon which served as his mount. War and XPs He continued with his master plan to gain power, having turned his attention to the three remaining Gates located around the world, each of which could be used in the same manner as Dorukan's. Selecting the Azure City Gate as his next target, they successfully assaulted the outer watchtowers of the realm, eliminating the guards, imprisoning the paladin Miko Miyazaki (although he intended her to escape, allowing him to use her as a scrying focus to successfully determine the precise location of the Gate) and destroying the warning beacon before it could be activated. The army (approximately 30,000 Hobgoblins and several hundred zombies, ghouls and siege engines) arrived at Azure City and the attack got underway. Xykon's disregard for such things as tactics meant that they used a plan constructed solely by Redcloak to assault the city. This mainly involved using three decoy Xykons, a cowardly Eye of Fear and Flame leading the southern division, a Death Knight leading a charge at the breach in Azure City's walls made by Redcloak's titanium elementals and a Huecuva (undead cleric) holding position in the rear; all three are humanoid skeletal creatures that look no different than a lich, to the extent that Redcloak gave them colored pendants to tell them apart. The real Xykon was flying towards the castle on a zombie dragon, under a Greater Invisibility spell. After Sangwaan, Azure City's seer, revealed him with a True Seeing spell, Durkon dispelled his invisibility. Xykon made the dragon throw Sangwaan off the wall, then made several passes over the battlements, but was warded off and then assaulted mid-flight by Roy with his Starmetal sword. After unsuccessfully trying to talk Roy into giving up the attack for a later, more epic final face-off, he destroyed his own mount with a Meteor Swarm, taking revenge on Roy by sending him falling to his death. He then flew off under his own power, using the Overland Flight spell he had cast earlier. On the way he recruited Tsukiko, a prisoner released to defend the city, who told him the location of the throne room where the rift is located. Upon entering the throne room however, he found that it was heavily guarded by the Sapphire Guard. .]] When the Guard attempted to attack him, using their sheer numbers to overwhelm Xykon, the lich responded by using a single Symbol of Insanity inscribed on a rubber bouncing ball to drive almost the entire Guard into madness, attacking each other, and proceeded to casually destroy the rest. However, while Xykon was gloating over the success of the Insanity superball, all the spirits of the slain paladins ascended and took on new forms as 'Ghost-Martyrs' alongside the spirit of Soon Kim, Founder of the Sapphire Guard. Faced with a massive battalion of spirit warriors and an even more powerful foe in Soon, Xykon was rendered speechless. In danger of being overwhelmed, Xykon was rescued by the arrival of Redcloak, who told the lich to focus on Soon Kim's spirit while he dealt with the others. Realising that Soon knew about his phylactery, Xykon attempted to get Redcloak to leave, but the pair were swiftly incapacitated. Only when Soon was distracted by the arrival of the delusional Miko Miyazaki was Xykon able to escape, carrying Redcloak with him. After escaping the destruction and healing themselves, Xykon and Redcloak proceeded to proclaim that Azure City was under their rule. Xykon was later seen casting a Cloister spell over the city wearing Dorukan's headband. Don't Split the Party Xykon set up a base of operations in Azure City, raising a scary-looking tower. He was attacked by Vaarsuvius at one point after V was spliced with two very powerful souls, but he managed to defeat them and nearly kill V and O-Chul. They were only saved by the Monster in the Darkness, who teleported them to safety despite the city being Cloistered, but not before Redcloak's right eye was put out and he lost Xykon's phylactery. The enraged Xykon ordered Redcloak's hobgoblins to retrieve it, and forbade Redcloak to regrow his eye, partially to remind Redcloak of his failure to protect the phylactery and partially to remind him of having killed Right-Eye. Blood Runs in the Family The hobgoblins eventually retrieved the phylactery, only to temporarily lose it to the Resistance. When the party that retrieved it returned to the rebel headquarters, however, they discovered that Redcloak had destroyed the rest of the organization. After killing the rest of the rebels, Redcloak switched the phylactery for a forgery, and handed the fake to Xykon. Due to the deaths of the only two hobgoblins directly involved, Redcloak is currently the only one aware of the swap. Xykon stated that he intended to move on to another Gate now that he had his phylactery back, taking only Tsukiko, Redcloak and the MitD with him. He modified his plans on learning that Tsukiko was murdered by Redcloak, though he casually stated that if he had to smoke her, he had to smoke her (which would have upset her greatly were she still alive, as the Mystic Theurge had a crush on him). Xykon was later encountered by the Order of the Stick in Girard Draketooth's pyramid, presumably looking for Girard's Gate. After Vaarsuvius disabled Redcloak, preventing him from healing Xykon, Roy used the Spellsplinter Maneuver to stop Xykon casting spells and cut his head in two. Unfortunately, the entire battle was merely an illusion, caused by the magical runes along the corridor. After the illusion was broken, the real Xykon arrived to claim the Gate for his own. Moments after Xykon arrived, however, the damage Roy dealt to the Gate in order to keep it out of both Xykon and Tarquin's hands exploded, destroying the pyramid. Xykon intended to kill the weakened Order on the spot, but was convinced by the Monster that it would be a waste of time and that the Order was probably meant as a distraction while the remainder of the Sapphire Guard (and Vaarsuvius) proceeded to protect the last remaining Gate. Xykon latched on to this idea and sought to leave immediately, but Redcloak persuaded Xykon to allow him to cast Summon Monster IX before they left in an attempt to efficiently kill the surviving members Order of the Stick (Durkon having been killed by Malack). Utterly Dwarfed Since the events at Windy Canyon, Xykon and Team Evil teleported directly to the North Pole where Kraagor's Gate is located. The Gate is defended by Kraagor's Tomb, built by Serini Toormuck. The Tomb consists of hundreds of separate dungeons, any one of which might contain the Gate. Redcloak enlisted the help of the Beastmistress Oona and her village of Bugbears near the Tomb. Together they have been systematically (they think) clearing the tombs one by one in search of the Gate. The MitD has been confounding their efforts by marking off dungeons that they have not already cleared, potentially speeding or preventing their discovery of the Gate. Personality and Traits Xykon is, in many ways, a highly stereotypical evil overlord as seen in many fantasy novels and roleplaying games and does his best to live up to all the clichés associated with the role. However he is also genuinely cruel and sadistic, mainly taking joy in the deaths of others. He is rarely surprised by anything, is normally guided by his whims and cannot remember the names of the Order (often butchering Roy Greenhilt's surname into Bluepommel, Redblade or some other variation, if he is even able to remember him at all) and has to be reminded by Redcloak who they are, which hints at either a vast experience with adventurers and villains, or else his lack of interest and chaotic nature. He is often shown to be rather casual about his evil deeds and is rarely in a serious mood. He finds tactical discussions tedious (to the point that he falls asleep, something liches can't actually do), apparently feeling that simply throwing his minions, who he generally regards as being completely expendable, into the fray in huge numbers will get the job done. Despite his lack of strategic abilities he is nonetheless capable of coming up with incredibly simple yet cunning solutions in certain situations, and has stated that although he is often apathetic to most things, he is apparently not quite as ignorant as others would see him. His general approach to his activities indicates that he gets bored with conventional strategy and he already knows what he's going to do, and doesn't see a need to discuss it. His stated belief is that there is a level of force against which no tactics can be successful; he utilizes shock and awe techniques as his primary means of victory, though he also believes in the concept that one of the keys to victory is how far one is willing to debase oneself until feeling remorse. He has used the gullibility of heroes against the Order of the Stick, and he knows the genre conventions of evil. Powers and Abilities *'Epic Level': He is among the Epic Levels (21+), as he points out he is at least 7 levels higher than Roy (who is level 13 minimum, probably 14). Roy himself has stated that Xykon is at least 21st level considering that he needs an epic feat to cast an epic spell such as Cloister. That was later confirmed during his battle against Vaarsuvius, where he cast Superb Dispelling, an epic spell, by himself. Additionally—during the fight with spliced Vaarsuvius, Xykon casts Maximized Energy Drain—effectively a 12th level spell requiring three epic feats or perhaps a Rod of Metamagic. With Epic Spellcasting, this means Xykon may have 4 epic feats—and assuming he stuck with Epic Sorcerer as his class, his level may be 26 or higher but could be as low as 21 if he achieved the Maximized Energy Drain through the use of magic items. Additionally, being a Lich, his Challenge Rating is at least 23 meaning he should be able to easily overpower any standard-sized, non-epic adventurers group under standard circumstances. **From Xykon's spell list, one can see: Animate Dead, Greater Invisibillity, Resilient Sphere, Stoneskin, Cloudkill, Overland Flight, Symbol of Pain, Contingency, Finger of Death, Greater Teleport, Mass Hold Person, Ghostform, Symbol of Insanity, Energy Drain, Meteor Swarm, Soul Bind, Cloister, Epic Mage Armour and Superb Dispelling. Additionally, he has also demonstrated the use of: Animate Dead Animal, Invisibility, Magic Missile, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Overland Flight, Ray of Frost, Shatter, Symbol of Pain, Teleport, Xykon's Moderately Escapable Forcecage, an unspecified fire spell, an unspecified planar travel spell, a summoning spell, an architecture spell, and a wall-breaking spell. Weapons and Equipment *'Crown': Xykon wears Fyron Pucebuckle's crown, which is not magical, but makes Xykon look "totally badass". It has absorbed enough of Xykon's evil that it radiates evil itself, enough to make it look like Roy's alignment is evil to Miko's Detect Evil.Comic 202, "Scanning..." *'Serini's Diary': Xykon found Serini Toormuck's diary some six years prior to the Order entering the Dungeon of Dorukan. It contains the locations of all five Gates. He had kept it in the library of his backup fortress. *'Dorukan's Headband': Taken from Dorukan after his defeat at the hands of the lich, this item is necessary for Xykon to cast the epic-level Cloister spell, which he used on both the Dungeon of Dorukan as well as Gobbotopia. *'Soul Gem': This item was used to trap the souls of both Lirian and Dorukan. *'Ring of Positive Plane Protection': Protects against positive energy attacks which he is vulnerable to as an undead being animated by negative energy. This item would have prevented Right-Eye's dagger from allowing a sneak attack on him. *'Ring of Protection': Of unspecified power, this item also grants a deflection bonus. *'Fire immunity item': During the battle with the Soul Spliced V, Xykon explained that he had crafted an item to grant him fire immunity, so that he can use fire area-of-effect spells around himself. It is unknown what type of item this is. *'Boots of Freedom of Movement': These boots were acquired in one of the dungeons of Kraagor's Tomb, they prevent him from being grappled or entangled. Xykon also stated that they stop his toe bones from catching on things and falling off. *'Widescreen Crystal Ball': Bought at Quest Buy. Xykon rarely casts his own divination spells, probably due to the limited number of spells sorcerers can know, he prioritized other magic. He does cast a scrying spell as the Order of the Stick were entering the Dungeon of Dorukan.''Dungeon Crawlin' Fools'', digital edition, p. I *'Teevo': Bought along with the crystal ball, this allows Xykon to record his scrying for later viewing. *'Scrolls': Xykon used "a bunch" of scrolls to protect his fortress-tomb-thingie on the Astral Plane. The Order of the Stick Adventure Game Xykon is the primary adversary in the Order of the Stick Adventure Game. The game is set in the Dungeon of Dorukan that served as Xykon's base of operations for the first 120 strips of the comic series, with the lowest dungeon floor in any game being made up of special Xykon's Lair cards. Vanquishing Xykon is one of the principal goals of the game, as only by defeating the Xykon monster card in battle can the game be ended. Gallery Xykon.gif WeOwnthisCity.png References Category:Humans Category:Undead Characters Category:Sorcerers Category:Team Evil Category:Chaotic Evil Characters Category:Evil Characters Category:Inhabitants of Gobbotopia Category:Males